Socialists Defeat Democrats: Now It’s USA vs. DSA

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary
Episode: "Socialists Defeat Democrats: Now It’s USA vs. DSA"
Date: August 6, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Ruthless team dissects the seismic shift within the Democratic Party as socialist and DSA (Democratic Socialists of America)-aligned candidates defeat establishment Democrats in critical primaries, most notably in Michigan. They argue this development has redefined American politics, casting 2026 as a battle between the USA and the DSA. The episode features pointed analysis, biting humor, and trademark irreverence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Democratic Party’s Left Turn: Michigan as Ground Zero

• Michigan’s Senate Primary:
  The hosts frame Abdul El-Sayed's primary victory as proof the DSA now dominates the Democratic Party. They stress this isn’t limited to urban enclaves—it’s happening in heartland, statewide races.

  • “This is a statewide right here. That’s what the DSA took down the other night… This is happening in Michigan.” – Smug [03:10]
  • “It’s not some weird congressional race. This is the heart of the industrial Midwest…” – Holmes [03:36]

• El-Sayed and Hasan Piker Association:
  Focus is placed on El-Sayed’s association with influencer Hasan Piker, notorious for comments like “America deserved 9/11.” The hosts argue this radicalism is now mainstream within the party.

  • “His biggest supporter, the man he spent election eve with at a pool party, said America deserved 9/11.” – Holmes [00:20]
  • “There is an individual on that ballot…who says they want to disarm the police and they want to enforce no immigration laws whatsoever.” – Smug [21:39]

2. DSA Ideology vs. Working Class Interests

• Contradiction with Working Class:
  The team highlights the irony: The so-called socialist revolution is driven by overeducated, affluent whites in places like Ann Arbor—not the working class or black voters, who overwhelmingly backed the losing candidate (Haley Stevens).

  • “It’s actually Marxism that’s pro-bourgeoisie.” – Holmes [10:41]
  • “This is a bunch of overeducated people who have failed at so much in their life and want to take the resentment out… They just want to pillage the country.” – Smug [11:03]

• Election Breakdown:
  Holmes details how Stevens dominated in urban African American precincts, while El-Sayed ran up numbers in college towns and affluent white neighborhoods.

  • “She [Stevens] dominated in the Democratic Party from 24 through Mamdani, through now has basically said fuck you to their traditional African American base.” – Holmes [13:28]

3. Democrats’ “Civil War” Goes National

• Ripple Effect and Upcoming Races:
  Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary is next, with Francesca Hong—another far-left candidate—leading. Her use of language (“proximity to whiteness,” “folx”) becomes fodder for the hosts’ ridicule and concerns about the party’s future.

  • “They have to invent these words for being crazy… like, they don’t want to…say the things that they did because they’ll sound insane…” – Smug [37:09]
  • “Does she think that calling it indigenous folx with an X…does that reduce violence on reservations?” – Ashbrook [42:13]

• Fragmenting Coalition:
  The hosts see a growing chasm in the Democratic coalition—between the working class/black voters and the DSA-supporting, college-educated whites.

4. Populism, “Victimhood,” and Media Reactions

• Populist Messaging Hide Radicalism:
  The DSA, they warn, cloaks radicalism in populist rhetoric (“free groceries,” “climate justice”) to broaden appeal, but the underlying ideology remains dangerous.

  • “The Democratic Party may have checked into the hospital with a fever, but now they have a terminal case of socialism.” – Duncan [05:35]

• Media Soft-Pedaling:
  The panel predicts mainstream media will downplay radical statements for the sake of “horse race” coverage.

  • “The only reason…you surface bad news about a Democrat is when it’s in service of another Democrat.” – Ashbrook [26:04]

5. “King of the Hill” & Comic Relief

• The recurring segment pits extreme tweets from politicos and pundits against each other; this week, Steve Schmidt “wins” with attacks on Lindsey Graham even after his death.
  • “Lindsey Graham’s funeral was as disgraceful as he was…I break down his legacy as a power hungry errand boy who was effectively a foreign agent.” – (Reading Schmidt’s tweet) [66:25]
• Light-hearted banter about Instagram algorithms, boner pill science, and more, contribute to the podcast’s irreverent charm.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The civil war in the Democratic Party has been fought and won by something other than Democratic establishment. It seems like communism, socialism, anti-Americanism is alive and well and maybe the heartbeat of the Democratic Party.” – Holmes [00:00]
• “Now it is USA versus DSA.” – Holmes [00:37, 18:25]
• “They want full government control of your life…Soup the nuts. They want us to just sell out all western values…” – Holmes [08:05]
• “It’s a movement…at a pool party with Hasan Piker, a millionaire who lives in LA in a mansion…and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re out here for working people.’” – Smug [11:03]
• “But the ideology remains.” – Holmes [06:56]

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Key Timestamps

• 00:00–04:00: Michigan DSA win; implications for party identity and the “heartbeat” of Democrats.
• 05:35–09:30: DSA ideology; the Bernie Bros’ “primal scream” and populist cover for socialism.
• 13:00–16:00: Data breakdown; demographic and geographic divides in Dem electorate.
• 18:45–21:40: El-Sayed “dangerous” ad; discussion of radical stances.
• 21:40–26:30: Media coverage; predictions of “horse race” focus, ignoring radical positions.
• 34:17–44:40: Wisconsin’s Francesca Hong; discussion of progressive rhetoric and “folx.”
• 44:47–52:59: Michigan’s William Lawrence (DSA, anti-establishment) winning over military/ambassador types.
• 55:16–58:14: Comic segment on Sri Thandahar, the “beagle scandal,” and Democratic unpopularity.
• 60:17–67:28: “King of the Hill” Twitter showdown, with Steve Schmidt’s attacks on Lindsey Graham.
• 67:51–71:44: Science segment on Viagra, Instagram algorithm banter, closing community comments.

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Tone, Style, and Closing Thoughts

The episode maintains the hosts’ sardonic, energetic style—cutting critiques mixed with humor and in-group banter. Their central case: establishment Democrats have lost control to a DSA-driven left that is “anti-American” and out of touch with ordinary voters, especially the working class and African Americans. The team closes by urging listeners to recognize what they consider the existential stakes of these political shifts, with a plea for engagement and vigilance.

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Sample of Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “This is not a Working people’s revolution. This is not working-class Americans being like, ‘You know what, we’re fed up with this and we’re gonna go out and do something about this.’” – Smug [11:03]
• “What Marx envisioned was a working class rising up against the owners…but if you look at…DSA candidates’ wins, it’s not the working class. In fact, the working class…are the people who are like, no, please, for the love of God, I don’t want this!” – Holmes [09:35]
• “You just have to listen. They want full government control of your life. Soup the nuts.” – Holmes [08:05]

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Final Takeaway

The Ruthless team frames the DSA’s ascendance as a turning point for American politics: what was once a fringe movement now holds sway over key Democratic primaries, startling both the old establishment and the nation’s political landscape. With trademark irreverence, the hosts both mock and warn of what they see as the dangers ahead, urging listeners to get involved, stay vigilant, and, above all, “stay ruthless.”

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

The civil war in the Democratic Party has been fought and won by something other than Democratic establishment. It seems like communism, socialism, anti Americanism is alive and well and maybe the heartbeat of the Democratic Party.

[John Ashbrook]

At this point of course we're talking about Abdul Al said, the Democrats standard bearer for Senate and state of Michigan.

[Josh Holmes]

His biggest supporter, the man he spent election eve with at a pool party said America deserved 9 11.

[Comfortably Smug]

The DSA occupied occupied Democrat party no longer wants a prosperous America. They want to pillage America.

[Josh Holmes]

The takeaway is this is the Democratic Party. Now it is USA versus DS

[John Ashbrook]

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[Josh Holmes]

most influential podcasts in America.

[Michael Duncan]

I love the personality.

[Comfortably Smug]

You guys are killing it.

[Michael Duncan]

I just saw your number one.

[Comfortably Smug]

So congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the Sean Hannity guys. I love you. Congratulations on all your success.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is why you listen to the

[Michael Duncan]

Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question. The only political podcast worth listening to

[Comfortably Smug]

is the Ruthless Podcast.

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. It is DSA versus usa. The civil war in the Democratic Party has been fought and won by something other than Democratic establishment. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left to right across your radio dial. As always, fellas, I'm just taking a look the results. We were reliably told that this was something that was confined into the boroughs of New York. A Bom Donnie phenomenon. It doesn't look like seems like communism, socialism, anti Americanism is alive and well and maybe the heartbeat of the Democratic Party at this point, doesn't it?

[Comfortably Smug]

And we're not even talking about this is not Just like congressional districts. This is a statewide right here. That's what the DSA took down the other night, is it's going to be a statewide race in Michigan. This is not something that's happening in New York City. Like Holmes said, this isn't even just a thing that's happening. Oh, you know, you heard Colorado's going a little lefty. It's not just a crazy little thing happening there. This is happening in Michigan.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not some weird congressional race. This is the heart of the industrial Midwest, ladies and gentlemen, and this is the party that this is what they have to provide. It is fundamentally un American. Not just in.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's not opinion. That is in their charter.

[Josh Holmes]

They're anti American. They want to destroy Western civilization, America included, and it's in the charter. Secondly, they believe that an economic system that has raised more people out of poverty than all of socialism and the history of it combined is the problem. They want to 25 years removed from 9 11. They want you to believe that our oldest and most significant ally in the Middle east is the problem. And Islamic radicalism, jihadism is the answer to it. If you'd have told me that any of this stuff was even within the realm of possibilities five years ago, I would have said, like, that's a fever dream.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, you would never have believed it. And I thought Mike Rogers said it pretty well himself. Of course we're talking about Abdul Al Sayed, the Democrats standard bearer for Senate and state of Michigan. Mike Rogers, former national security expert in our country. When El sayed one, he, Mike Rogers said, quote, I spent years hunting terrorists in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9 11. And to your point about this year, the 25th anniversary of 911 being sort of the, the high noon moment for America versus the dsa. I, I just like you, you could have never imagined it in a million years.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. To continue your point, Holmes, you know, the Democratic Party may have checked into the hospital with a fever, but now they have a terminal case of socialism. That's right. Infected the entire party. And I think it tells you what low regard the Democratic primary base has for the party. As we've said here on the show,

[Josh Holmes]

the party in the country.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah. But in particular the party. And we've said here on the show, you know, they've been hoodwinked, the, the far left, the Bernie Bros. For so many cycles now that this is basically their primal scream against the Chuck Schumers of their party. And you know, I mean, people make the comparison between what's happening now in the Democratic Party to the Tea party wave in 2010 and 2012. And there are, while there are some similarities, there's some differences as well. But the one thing I don't want to forget, and we talked about this with Kaitlin Bledsoe from afp. What we should not lose in this is that there are some populist arguments that the DSA will hide all of the insane bullshit underneath in order to sell this to you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, and.

[Josh Holmes]

But the ideology remains.

[Michael Duncan]

The ideology remains. And you do have to wonder, like, do the voters of Michigan and all of these places across the country, did they wise up to that? You know, because the pitch that this guy's going to make, Syed's going to make in the general election is entirely different than what he was presenting to the primary voters in the election he just won.

[Josh Holmes]

You just don't have to be like a scholar of this. The man said America deserved 9 11. His biggest supporter and the man he spent election eve with at a pool party said America deserved 9 11.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They may distance themselves from that commentary now to do exactly what you're suggesting. Hide underneath. Well, we just need free groceries at a free grocery store. And they could maybe try to sell that to a segment of the electorate. But the reality is like they're asking the American people for a collective case of amnesia here, that you just don't care about your country at all. Because they don't.

[Comfortably Smug]

They don't.

[Josh Holmes]

They think that they believe that America deserved 9, 11. They believe that we are an inferior population. They believe that the economic system again that has risen more people out of poverty than any other place in the history of the world. It's the only country on any continent in the history of the world where you can be born into one set of life and rise up and become something else. You have upward mobility, the American dream. It is the only thing that this country has used to separate itself from everything before it and all of its current allies and adversaries. And yet these people see that as the greatest impediment for what it is that they want to accomplish. And what is it that they want to accomplish? They'll tell you, you just have to listen. They want full government control of your life. Soup the nuts. They want us to just sell out all western values whatsoever. They want top down remediation of every decision, every business. They want to the Marxist, like if you just take A step back and look at like Marxist ideology, proletariat, bourgeoisie. I don't want to get too deep into this shit, you know, I hate it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, nerd stuff, nerd stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

But like what Marx envisioned was a working class that was rising up against the owners of production, the bourgeoisie. But if you look at the results of all of these elections, whether they're in New York or Michigan or Colorado or wherever you're having DSA candidates win, it's not the working class. In fact, the working class are the people who are like, no, please, for the love of God, I don't want this. And they're voting in droves to the point where you can pull this race one week out and it looks like this guy has like a 19 point lead. He wins by a dick hair in Michigan. And the reason why he does is because you've got the working class in black predominantly voting blocks within the Democratic electorate that are like, please, no, for the love of God, this is everything we hate. Yeah, let's not do it. So it's actually Marxism that's pro bourgeoisie.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and that's the dirty little secret about all of these Marxist revolutions, like all the way back to Marx is like, it wasn't in the start the working class who came out of the factories and off the farms to be like, we need a revolution. No, the vanguard of that entire thing were the intellectuals. It was the nerds. It was a revolution of the nerds.

[Comfortably Smug]

And you're seeing it again happening here where you saw this kind of stuff foment at the universities, among the professors. It's a lot of this. This is the resentment of these so called intellectuals who are like, wow, I got three PhDs in Marxist theory. Why don't I have a lifestyle as great as my parents who made something of themselves in this country? It must be the fault of capitalism. It can't be that I'm a worthless person who wasted my life and am now completely covered in resentment and anger and want to take it out against the country which created opportunities. That's what this is. This is a bunch of over educated people who have failed at so much in their life and want to take the resentment out. They don't want to accept responsibility for their own behavior of like, let's see, what's the common denominator among all the failures in my life. It can't be me. It must be America. It must be America's fault that all this is happening and this is them having a backlash. This is not a Working people's revolution. This is not working class Americans being like, you know what, we're fed up with this and we're gonna go out and do something about this. This is a movement. I mean, like you said, he's at a pool party with Hasan Piker, a millionaire who lives in Los Angeles in a mansion, and they're like, yeah, we're out here for the working people. That's where we're at, a pool party with influencers on election night. Yeah, definitely. That's what they're out for, is helping out the working class people. And what they're about, what they're about with their resentment and their anger at how their mediocrity is. It's not ideological. They just want to pillage the country. It's that simple. They want to pillage our country. They want to take everything that this country's produced, they want to steal it and they want to dole it out to their supporters. The same story of what we saw happening in Minnesota. They get in and even Walz is okay with it because he knows, listen, this is how we get reelected. The machine is you steal from people, you pillage what they've created with their own hands and you dole it out to your followers. And we create a patronage system.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, we know an awful lot of Michigan voters see through their bullshit. Of course, a lot of people on the Republican side, but that primary on the Dem side was a lot closer than I think anybody reported it would be. Anybody predicted it would be. And I think that El Sayed is going to have his work cut out for him trying to bring some of those Democrats home who see through their bull.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think you're right. So here's the final results. Graphic 1. If you want to pop that up, you can see it's a one point victory for this guy. And I think the vast majority of polling that was made public showed a double digit win for El Sayed. To the point where you found Democrats around the country saying, like, when he wins a week before the election, when he wins, we'll do X. When he even what's her name was saying, well, you know, I'll endorse basically already making the concession speech a week before the election. Now it was a lot closer. But why, why is that? And we'll, we'll get into that in a second. I, I will say I just did a, like a basic breakdown where we looked through where he got his vote, where she got the three biggest urban areas. She dominated in the Democratic Party from 24 through Mamdani, through now has basically said fuck you to their traditional African American base. They have listened to what it is that they want, what it is that they think, and they've said, well, we don't think we can win with that any longer, so we're going to go in a different direction. And what you saw in terms of the vote count in Michigan was all these vote rich urban areas. A lot of African American Democratic primary voters all voted for Haley Stevens. All, I mean it was an enormous win, double digit win for her in all these places. And then you would go to like Ann Arbor, Michigan with the highest educated, effete, affluent, white, more degrees than a thermometer type place and they would just 9010 her. And it became so clear in that what you saw in New York City in terms of all of those neighborhoods and how they vote is an extrapolation of the Democratic Party nationwide. And I think the takeaway is this is the Democratic Party, they now have a vast majority. And you see that we mentioned this on the show last week when they reoriented their calendar. We're taking it out of Iowa. Like, we haven't really talked about how we're going to deal with the statutory thing in New Hampshire, but we'll figure that out. We've got these other things that we want. We want to reorient, but we want to make sure South Carolina is first. The reason that they're doing that is because the Democratic leadership understands that you cannot win an election with El Said.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

There's no one in this country who from a majority standpoint is going to listen to somebody who says we deserve 9, 11 and mean it and say like, okay, that guy should lead our country. But that's what they're going to get. This is the Bernie revolution that won Iowa, that won New Hampshire, that forced the Democratic Party to get into absolute panic mode to both install Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. So they want to change all that and they want to make South Carolina now lead the way on all of it.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, because hiding because black voters have been the rational moderating force within the Democratic Party that they've taken for granted.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

In all of this. And you look at Ann Arbor, University of Michigan or Grand Rapids, and those are the areas where Al said performed really well. And then even outside of Wayne county and the huge African American precincts there that Haley Stevens won, you look at other areas where Haley Stevens did well, obviously her old congressional district there in Oakland county, the suburban mom, the soccer mom. Vote Al, say it's going to have a lot of work to do there. And then you look at places that are your sort of traditional rural working class like the thumb. Haley Stevens did very well and Al Said didn't do so well. Now, Michigan had an open primary. I'm sure there's some Republicans who thought they would do some shenanigans maybe in this primary. But you know this whole fiction of the Bernie Bros that like the true grassroots candidate who represents the working class across the state of Michigan. No, that is a fiction as of today it is. We'll see.

[John Ashbrook]

And I saw plenty of videos last night yesterday of Democrats in Michigan saying they will not vote for El Sayed. That's a big problem for them. Like this is an internal battle that was not settled on primary night. This is going to.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. I mean we did a show last week that was DNC versus dsa. Now it is USA versus dsa. It really is.

[Comfortably Smug]

The DSA won that one.

[Josh Holmes]

They won the first one.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's over for the DSA5 in advance and now. Exactly. And now it's up to the rest of America to put them in their place.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally agree. So how does this guy kind of introduce himself? CLIP 1 Like you think about if you're on Instagram. My team has has access to my Instagram account and like the things that I actually look at on Instagram.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Of course we get served that on your for you page. But then like every third video that

[Michael Duncan]

scrolls on its own is going to

[Josh Holmes]

be some only fans model and it's because it clocked me as being a 40 some year old man.

[Comfortably Smug]

Is that why?

[Michael Duncan]

No. Is that why because you click on it. That's insane how algorithms work.

[Josh Holmes]

Or spend a little bit more time on the previous picture. Yeah it is. It's so funny. This happens every once in a while in the political world where somebody is like these Internet companies. My goodness gracious dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

The really bad thing is when you'd have cases of of people telling on themselves where they're like why is Google serving me this ad?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it posts a screenshot. Probably because you frequent that dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Like boater pills.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's like you're like that's not like Google deciding randomly. They want to give you that dude. They're trying to serve you up what you're after.

[Michael Duncan]

How dare Instagram keep showing me all these yoga butts. I for one would never click on this.

[Josh Holmes]

You know it must be the intern companies.

[Michael Duncan]

What I actually love about it Aside from how ignorant he is about how algorithms work and clearly he's a little hornier than he lets on is you find this convention with a lot of politicians now where they like to use something like this as a jumping off point for like, how the world happens to you. Like you don't have any agency in anything.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

There's always some shadowy force that controls everything in your life and you're not responsible for any of it.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

The world happens to you. You're a perpetual victim of like, Internet companies or your boss or like the country or the president. It's like you don't have any stake in ownership in your life, which is convenient for them because they're the government and they're going to solve it all for you.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a great point. So good.

[Josh Holmes]

The perfect microcosm larger right ideology that he. He definitely subscribes to. So our friends over at Senate Leadership Fund introduced him this way. Clip 2 Abdul El Sayed in his own words They've taken to calling me dangerous. Do police really need to use guns? Do we need as much of a police force?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm dangerous.

[Josh Holmes]

Under my leadership, our state will not expend a day dying enforcing federal immigration policy. I sure am dangerous.

[Michael Duncan]

We take them to the mud and choke them out.

[Josh Holmes]

Abdul El Sayed dangerously radical. I for sure am dangerous. SLF PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising. I'm pretty damn dangerous.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, straight up.

[John Ashbrook]

Disarm the police.

[Comfortably Smug]

Disarm the police and I will enforce no immigration. Like right there. Are you serious? He is. That's the problem, is you are going to be faced with a major party candidate in November on the ballot. Everyone in Michigan is paying attention. And tell your friends this. You are going to have a choice this election day. There is an individual on that ballot from a major party who says they want to disarm the police and they want to enforce no immigration laws whatsoever.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. What I love about that, and you see this all the time if you go to like Google, search trends or whatever, like after a primary, the rest of the electorate starts to wake up. You know, the people who are too busy or maybe they were on vacation that week or like they don't really get involved in primary politics, but they do read a newspaper or they watch television or they listen to shows like this and they're like, what is it about this cat? Who's this? El Sayed and they don't know what to think or to believe, but they, you know, they'll search on Google or whatever What I love about that ad is that it uses his own words.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's true. And so you're going to hear a lot of things about, you know, what people think about Al Said or some crazy policy he supported.

[Josh Holmes]

He just saying it.

[Michael Duncan]

And he's just saying it. I am dangerous. Which presents in the minds of the voter permission structure to be like, okay, well, he says he's dangerous. All these other people saying he supports X policy. Well, that seems dangerous. Well, now I believe he is, in fact dangerous. He said it himself.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And I don't want to hear from a single Michigan person about how they were just like, well, I don't get involved in midterms. I don't know what all this is. It seems like partisan nonsense. If this guy wins, the message it sends not only to the Democrat Party, which will continue to nominate people just like that, but our country as a whole, in an evenly divided country, of which people like this can get elected, is horrible. I mean, the idea that this guy could be setting foreign policy or it could be setting domestic policy in this country.

[Michael Duncan]

Mind you, there was a time back early in the Iran conflict when we took out the Ayatollah and it was leaked out of his campaign. Some sensitive. They had some sensitivities.

[Josh Holmes]

They didn't want it. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Putting out a statement announcing the Ayatollah's death because, you know, there's constituencies there, as we call it, on the. The Hamas caucus. Those are his voters. And you got to be like 80% in Dearborn. But, you know, to their allegiance to the greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, you, heaven forbid you put out a statement that, like the USA was right to take out this murderous dictator in this faraway country. Because at the heart this change of a Democratic party to a DSA party is a Third world party, an anti American party. And that's what should scare everybody. It should.

[Josh Holmes]

And if you're going, if you don't have a Senate race or a significant congressional race or a governor's race in your state that you want to get involved in, get involved in Michigan, Mike Rogers is the guy. Because this one will have national repercussions. It's not just control of the United States Senate. It is the larger message that it will send across the board about whether or not this kind of politics is where America is headed. And you know damn well the mainstream media from here on out. Now that election is, has been settled in Michigan. Process only. We will not, they will not cover how radical and insane this guy Is it'll be like, well, two points up, two points down.

[Michael Duncan]

Horse race, horse race, two points down.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he's gone to. He's gone to this place. He's gone to this place. Isn't it interesting that he's gone to this place? Oh my gosh. He went to a white suburb and he talked to these people and he seemed to get along.

[Michael Duncan]

Check out his handshake in this diner. Yeah, man, he's so hip.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like nobody never ever just stops the record for a second and is like he said that America deserved 9 11. Are we going to talk about that? No, they won't. From here on out, it's over. The only reason, to the point that you always make, Ashbrook, you only surface bad news about a Democrat when it's in service of another Democrat.

[John Ashbrook]

So you're not going to see as much bad news about Democrats once the primary is decided because there's no other Democrat to serve. And to the extent that it's not a process story, it's going to be Republicans pounce on 911 claims. Something. Something to sort of like soften.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. The blow.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, exactly.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. They can't just report out what they said. It's gotta be framed around what we're saying about the thing that happened.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Well, old Byrne, the grandfather of this movement, Bernie Sanders, had to take on a question about those 911 comments. Here's how he handled it in clip three. I know that you've spoken to Hasan Piker in the past. Are you comfortable with El Said having a close association with him, given some of his past statements? To give you an example, one of the more controversial ones is that Piker has said America deserved 9 11. Are you comfortable with that association?

[Michael Duncan]

No, I am not.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's a dumb statement. On the other hand, he has a whole lot of followers and there's a

[Michael Duncan]

lot of things that he's saying that

[Josh Holmes]

are making sense to a lot of people.

[Michael Duncan]

I think we'd have to get a buzz cancel culture.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, when you're doing

[Comfortably Smug]

podcast three

[Josh Holmes]

hours a day, you say dumb things.

[Michael Duncan]

I suspect if you go back over

[Josh Holmes]

your career, there may be one or two things that you've said that you may have.

[John Ashbrook]

I suspect you said 911 was good, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, everybody said that. Everybody said something like that. Yeah. Is this also what an entirely vacant thing to say from a guy who's supposed to be like the ideological grandfather,

[John Ashbrook]

the leader, but let's not pretend that's who this guy is? Okay. We've all seen the grainy videos of him having dinner and smoking dope with the Soviets back in the day. We know what this guy has been for years. Nice as he might be to somebody on the Senate subway as like, exactly as much as he's got his talking points down in this iteration of who Bernie Sanders is, do not be fooled.

[Michael Duncan]

But it's just such a funny excuse.

[John Ashbrook]

He wants this to be a communist country.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a funny excuse to be like, but you don't understand, Abby, the followers, he's got just so many followers. You know, like, imagine explaining that floors of frights when you get to the Burling and you're talking to St. Peter and you're like, yeah, I hung out with terrorists, but he had just so many followers.

[Comfortably Smug]

You don't understand.

[Michael Duncan]

I couldn't do the right thing because of the followers.

[Josh Holmes]

This is a litmus test. If you're an American, you have to reject this stuff. Like you have to and like, you can have like we always talk about in this program. When I started in politics, it was two different ideologies to get upon an answer for agreed upon problems in this country. It was like, you know, housing costs are high, or, you know, crime is too high or whatever. And like, you ask a Democrat, they're like, I don't know, crime. I think we should probably do some social work and whatever. You ask a Republican, they're like, we gotta get more cops on the, on the beat for the economy. It was like, I don't know, maybe you should let innovation and employers drive economic development and jobs and everything else.

[Comfortably Smug]

A very good point is, I think this is a very significant change between what we used to have, where it was two parties both theoretically wanting to arrive at a more prosperous America, a better country. And that is what has changed, is that now the DSA controlled dnc, the DSA occupied Democrat party no longer wants a prosperous America. They want to pillage America, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's just, it's the bottom line. And if you or your neighbor don't completely understand that, I urge you to just think deeply about it because there's. Look, we all have minimal amount of time that we can dedicate to politics and social and civic activity. But to the extent that you don't, you have some, this is really important. This is, this is not going to be something that if it doesn't go our way, you look back on, you're like, well, we can overcome it. I mean, this is a ball rolling downhill and either you become basically a, you know, third Arm of a Middle Eastern style, Western European sort of democracy sort of. Or you get America and that there's no way to get it back. Like they take inches at a time.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, they just take inches at a time. It started with FDR in this country where you take inches at a time, you make it an entitlement state. You start expanding entitlements, you start doing all these things, and pretty soon you're in a place where you just have a socialism as a country that eliminated the whole purpose and brilliance of the construct of this country.

[Michael Duncan]

But Holmes, you're not looking at the silver lining here. You know, when you're sent to the Gulag and you break your back. Free health care. You know, you get free health care,

[Josh Holmes]

it all works out. It's only free if the prison guard allows it.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, the hell no. The health care is.

[Michael Duncan]

I was promised no police.

[John Ashbrook]

Listen, listen. You can safely.

[Josh Holmes]

No police in the Gulag.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, they're not, they're not going to charge you for the long needle. Oh, yeah. They're just going to give it to you.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

So listen, this guy's Instagram obviously a mess and he's seeing a lot of Instagram models. Our question for you because, like, you got to, you know, you think about these things. What's your Insta. Instagram algorithm look like? You know, when you hit that spyglass on the Instagram, what's that thing look like? I don't want to show the rest of the family that bad boy.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't think Delarico once any.

[Josh Holmes]

I got a lot of fit. I will, I will report that I have a lot of fishing and boats.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. A lot of sports on mine.

[Josh Holmes]

I have, I've Vikings replays, which is terrible, but there's a couple, there's a couple of things in there that's like. Yeah, I did probably look at that.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, yeah, well, some. Well, you know what? Sometimes they. They Trojan horse that stuff. You know, you think you're looking at golf content.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And then it just.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, and then it's just.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what?

[Michael Duncan]

It just happens to be here I am innocently trying to get some swing tips.

[Josh Holmes]

I love the insulating yourself. You know, I just wanted to swing tip and boy, oh boy, you know. Darn it. Gosh, Jiminy Christmas, wouldn't you know,

[Michael Duncan]

I love it.

[John Ashbrook]

It's true.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, we come back, it's more USA versus dsa. It's not done in Michigan. There's actually more stories to tell and there's an upcoming election that you Gotta know more about. We covered a little bit earlier, but this is like, this is going everywhere right after this.

[John Ashbrook]

America has a powerful advantage. Abundant oil and natural gas right here at home. But energy security requires more than energy in the ground. It requires sustained production, resilient supply chains, and importantly, modern infrastructure like pipelines that move energy to the places it's needed to families, businesses and communities. Energy security is not just about what we produce. It's about whether we can deliver it safely, reliably, and efficiently, efficiently when people need it most. That's how America protects consumers, supports our economy, and leads from a position of energy strength. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so Michigan obviously gave us an entree into how the beating heart of the Democratic Party with the DSA has entered into the industrial Midwest. It is not a Manhattan thing. It is not a East coast or west coast thing. It is right in the middle of their party everywhere to that point. There's also a gubernatorial election next Tuesday in Wisconsin. I grew up right next door in Minnesota. Like, hey, you know, they're Wisconsinites. They got stuff going on and I'm not gonna endorse everything that they have

[Michael Duncan]

going on except Summerfest. Summerfest is great.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, but generally speaking, they do like, these are good people. Yeah, right. They're sort of like hard of salt of the earth type folks. Well, their Democratic candidate is this woman by the name of Francesca Hong. And you met her here on, I think was Tuesday's program where we had some things to say about her canceling Thanksgiving, a holiday that we revere here on the ruthless Friday program. For all of you OGs, you know exactly what you're talking about.

[Michael Duncan]

Punt the turkey.

[Josh Holmes]

Punt that fucking turkey. Anyway, she's got more thoughts, but. But more importantly, let's start with graphic two. So this is the only latest poll where she is up 3816 over the next closest competition to be the Democratic nominee for governor of Wisconsin. Now, important to note that that person that is in the second place position in this poll. It's the latest poll that we had to pull. And this is from Real Clear Politics. Barnes dropped out.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, dropped out.

[Josh Holmes]

So you got three other candidates that could, you know, maybe consolidate what is a 16% or it ends up going to Hong. The point is it's not getting better than this poll where looks. So she has a sizable lead.

[Michael Duncan]

If anything, Barnes dropping out was a Hail Mary by the establishment to try to mount an opposition to Hong that maybe they could Consolidate the field a little bit and then, like, really run a campaign against Hong. What?

[Josh Holmes]

There's so many. We just have so many inside jokes that we're just not going to do here. Anyway, here's what she has to say about her proximity to whiteness.

[Comfortably Smug]

Clip 4 I wasn't always aware of the struggles of other communities of color because for me, assimilation always kind of took over. And so I did marry. And proximity to whiteness continues. Right? My son is biracial. He's half white and half Korean.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

She couldn't even say, I married a white guy. She's like, I married my proximity to whiteness. They have to invent these words for being crazy. Like, they don't want to. They can't just say the things that they did because they'll sound insane of being like, I married a white guy. So that's my proximity to whiteness. Like, they have to always try to sound like they're intellectuals when really they're just schizophrenics. Like, all this shit is just pure schizophrenia of, like, when she put out her statement about the thing about Thanksgiving is that there are many communities that it could be a traumatic experience to sit around and have a turkey. You know, like, no one buys this. This is just extremely strange niche behavior. But that's the story of what's happened to the Democrat Party because they're all just out of their minds.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm glad you mentioned her Thanksgiving message from November of 2020 where she talked. She said, cancel Thanksgiving. She goes on to say a bunch of other stuff, but there's something in here I don't really understand. I'm hoping that Michael can help us figure this out, because she called. First of all, she called colonialism in the original super spreader event that killed indigenous folks. Okay. And I'm assuming she graduated high school and knows that folks is spelled F O L, K S, but she intentionally misspelled the word F O L X. Yeah. Is there something about the K in the S that she is also against? Like, what's with. She's. She doesn't like those letters or what's.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's the same thing as, like, remember Latinx? Latinx, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You're joking right now.

[Michael Duncan]

No, seriously, I'm looking at it.

[Josh Holmes]

Wait, we're joking.

[Michael Duncan]

No, seriously. So this is a real thing, right? So folks spelled with a K and an S they see as an attack on. On non binary and gender fluid.

[Josh Holmes]

Come on, come on, come on.

[Michael Duncan]

In these communities, these indigenous communities, these minority communities, and so they use the X instead. Wait, yeah, but the.

[Josh Holmes]

But wait, hold on. But the word folks is for real.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm looking at it right now. The word folks is not. There's no gender specific. Right. It's like talking about everybody.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is exactly what I was saying.

[Michael Duncan]

You would be shocked the things these people have invented in their mind palace.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

You.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, this is schizophrenia all the way down.

[Michael Duncan]

And, and in fact. And I want to reiterate this, we talked about it briefly on Will Kane. I think her entire personality is derived from the fact that she's divorced to a white guy. And she's invented this far left wing, you know, the folks with an ax. And I have proximity to whiteness as a temper tantrum for her divorce. Like this is like midlife crisis energy. And she's made it. Her entire personality is right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude. He's 100% right.

[Michael Duncan]

And I have no reason to know this. This is entirely conjecture, but I've seen too many liberal women to not think it's a high probability.

[Comfortably Smug]

And here's the thing is, like, so much of, of this shit is rooted in mad at ex husband or mad at dad. Like the mad at dad problem that the DNC is grappling with.

[Josh Holmes]

Folks with a ks. Be a good dad. Yeah, be a good dad.

[Michael Duncan]

Please be a good dad.

[Josh Holmes]

Please be a good. For the love of the future of our country, be a good dad. For the love of God. If what you get is folks with an ex and somebody who's worried about their proximity to whiteness, just go home, spend some time with the kids, maybe throw some balls around. I don't know if she likes playing house or whatever the fuck, but do it.

[Michael Duncan]

I. I don't think I'm really, like, speaking out of school on this either. You see these, like, horror stories about, like, you know, a man and woman gets divorced, and then suddenly the mom gets super into changing the gender of their kid.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And that there's, like, states like California who don't, you know, respect parental rights.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They want to take away the dad's right to have a decision about that.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So maybe that's a downstream effect, impact.

[Michael Duncan]

All I'm saying is many such cases,

[John Ashbrook]

what, what, what goes through a person's head when they're like what you just described, they're like, yeah, got him. Or they're like, you know what? I'm gonna spell folks with an X. Got him. I win. This is my. This is my.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's schizophrenia. It's a mental disorder.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want to take a step Back. It's important. Remember, this is a person running for governor. Like, I know.

[Josh Holmes]

Stay wide.

[Michael Duncan]

We know.

[Josh Holmes]

This is not some like weird.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're a township.

[Michael Duncan]

It's Wisconsin. They like cheese curds and beer.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is not someone who's putting out statements of like, here's how I'm bringing manufacturing jobs back to. Here's my plan to help make sure that you can start a business. Or like, here's my plan to help make sure that your kids go to a good school. It's all like proximity to whiteness. Let's get rid of Thanksgiving bullshit. This is pathetic. And I hope voters will make the right choice, but I'm starting to get more and more worried by the day because these are the kind of maniacs that are gonna be appearing on the general election ballot.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, it's true.

[John Ashbrook]

Does she think that calling it indigenous folks with an X.

[Michael Duncan]

He's still on the X. I can't get over it.

[John Ashbrook]

Does she think that, does that reduce like violence on reservations in our country is like there's some sort of an activity that, that improves the lives of Native American people.

[Michael Duncan]

We talked about this.

[John Ashbrook]

What the hell is this?

[Michael Duncan]

We talked about this week.

[John Ashbrook]

I can't get over it.

[Michael Duncan]

Ashbrook about how like the far left now plays this game of putting on the pieces of flare like their server at TGI Fridays and folks with an ax is a piece of flare. It's like it signals to the rest of their community that they're the most progressive, that they're the most considerate of other people, that they think beyond themselves and that's how they self actualize. And that means that we have to worry about the one person in the corner who's potentially going to be offended by this thing. And that's their entire political ideology.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, I think the through line, it'll bring us to our next story. The through line in all of this stuff is that you've always been able to find a manic left wing lunatic, I mean from the 60s in Berkeley and you know, you find these communities in Vermont and whatever you're going to find and crazy people stuff that like no one in America could possibly identify with. The difference with this cycle for the first time in my life and I testifying to that is that it is present and the driving force behind seats that Democrats absolutely need to win. They've put full faith and trust in the electorate that is now a DSA electorate to deliver majorities in the House, majorities in the Senate and the majority of governorships. This woman's running statewide. It is a maniacal proposition. The fact that 25 years removed from 9 11, you could have somebody like Elsie Syed winning a Senate primary to be a general election candidate in an open Senate seat that will determine the majority of the Senate is insane. It is equally insane that this next person in Michigan primary for a House seat that is literally two points separated in terms of what the ballot, generic ballot looks like.

[Michael Duncan]

It is a determiner, a majority maker.

[Josh Holmes]

It determines whether Republicans or Democrats have a House of Representatives. And what do Democrats do? Fox News reports inside antifa linked groups plan to structurally change the US As May Day unrest approaches. So this was the article about this guy several months ago coming in. And it's about this sunrise movement that this individual had.

[Michael Duncan]

William Lawrence.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, William Lawrence. So William Lawrence won a congressional primary in Michigan. I mean, I'm not from Michigan. I don't know much about it. Like, okay, yeah, Democrats do crazy things.

[John Ashbrook]

Fine.

[Josh Holmes]

You want to know who this guy beat? He beat a former ambassador to the Ukraine.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

And a Navy SEAL who was a military aide to Barack Obama. You're talking about in Democratic politics, it's a pretty good as close to made men as you could possibly get. And this fucking guy who throw a picture of this asshole up. That's him.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah,

[Josh Holmes]

that's him. This clown. Somehow in pursuit of eco socialism in multiracial democracy, which we have in America

[John Ashbrook]

already, by the way. FYI.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely, absolutely.

[Josh Holmes]

Dominated to almost by 20 points, two opponents with a resume in Democratic politics like that.

[Michael Duncan]

I would have thought ambassador to Ukraine would have more purchase in a Democratic primary in the Trump era. I mean, because like, that has become gospel, Ukraine has become reason.

[Comfortably Smug]

I kind of feel like this is a good discussion. I kind of feel like that's on the back burner now.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you think Trump, now that Trump decided that it's a battle worth fighting, that all of a sudden they're like, nah, nah, no more.

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't care anymore. I don't think that matters at all to them. And I think that their whole, I mean, as we're seeing, you know, state to state, congressional district, Congressional district, it's the DSA thing. It's pillage the country. They want to rob the country, they want to steal it, they want to break it, they want to pass out the pieces of it to their supporters and then they want to break and steal more. It's a smashing ground. Their party's fundamentally a smash and grab party. You see it in action most in Technicolor in Minnesota, you know, When Nick Shirley goes down there and he got video and then he got everyone's attention, they're like, really? There's waste, fraud and abuse at this scale. Yeah, it's called a political machine. And it's coming to a state near you and they want to expand it. And that's the DSA's purpose. It's like Duncan said, this is third worldism. This is resentment culture. This is a robbery. And they want to do it to every state and to every American. That's it.

[John Ashbrook]

He had me at eco socialism, which I assuming means that we have to bow down to whatever climate thing he wants.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I mean, that sort of gives the game away. Like everything in their ecosocialism, in their green revolution is really just socialism by other means. They want to cripple America's energy production because they don't want America to win. They don't want America to grow. They don't want people to be richer because richer means people have more demands on things like energy or consumption of food. And what they want want is a poor America. They want a third world America. That's what all of this is at its core. It's really not even ever about the thing they profess it to be about, whether that's climate justice or free health care or any of these things. It's all back to the ideology of being a third world country.

[John Ashbrook]

I've never seen climate justice, people picking up trash along the highway, you know, or trying to keep.

[Josh Holmes]

No, they don't give a about the community. Can you pop this guy's picture back up one more time for me? Here's where I struggle with American politics. Just leave it up for a second. I want to talk over the top of this bad boy, okay? Like I grant you that maybe not everybody. There's only, what, you know, 100,000 votes cast. Not everybody's doing a lot of research on this deal. And so they don't know everybody and may not have looked into it, but you have an ambassador to Ukraine. All right, maybe it used to be a democratic litmus test. Maybe that is just like fallen off the face of the planet that Zelenskyy had a meeting with Trump. Okay, like maybe bad timing for Brink on that, but then you've also got a Navy SEAL that was like a right hand man of Barack Obama on national security. I feel like up until this moment in history, the best possible way to be nominated for elected office in America, you're a Democrat with the blessing of Barack Obama, who just so happens to have bona fides at the highest level of American military.

[Michael Duncan]

He's also a small business owner. Not good enough.

[Josh Holmes]

And this fucking clown. Look at, just look at him. Just look at him. You would cast a ballot. Do you know how fucking brain dead that you have to be to look into that four eyes face and say that that guy has got what I had. Like he's going to have my best interest at heart. Are you nuts?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like we're dealing with such a broken electorate in the Democratic side that all, all rules are out the window. Dude, this is.

[Comfortably Smug]

Pull that photo back up. This is what your primary Democrat voter looks like. He has two advanced degrees. He makes nothing because they're in worthless degrees. They're in like climate justice or some stupid shit like that.

[Josh Holmes]

Never provided a single product to the American people ever.

[Comfortably Smug]

And so they want to break and pillage the country and they're okay with it. Yeah, that's it. That's why he looks like that and that's why they vote for that, because that's the primary vote in this country.

[Josh Holmes]

But I'm glad you brought this up because it actually brings up up the larger split that we're seeing. That is a conversation for another day. But we mentioned the split delegation in that Michigan primary was much closer than people imagined. In large part because you have this highly engaged, white, affluent, over educated population that's voting for these crazy people. But then you have the working class folks who've worked their ass off to obtain their health care insurance work their ass off to ensure that they have some kind of a 401k or something to take care of their family. And they work every day for their paycheck to make sure that they can put foot on the table and everything else. And when these people show up and they're like no free everything, everything that you guys are doing is all fucked up. It separates them from where the Democratic Party is going. Now. Donald Trump did an incredible job in the context of a presidential election of exploiting that divide, which I don't think was fully made like it may, it was made in that, the context of that election in many ways. But you look at where this is going, they're not going to represent anyone who's ever been associated to a union ever, because they just want to under the policies that a guy like that is promoting or El sayed or Hong or the rest of them is trying to undermine their life's work. The bargain that you made when you graduated high school with society about what it takes to take care of a Family, raise a family, build a neighborhood, build a community, put your kid in baseball practice, do all those things. They're saying, fuck all that. We're not interested in that. You're gonna be the ones that hold. Do you think the billionaires are the ones that are gonna hold the bill for any. Of course not. It's the people that have played by the rules. And there is a separation there that if Republicans haven't figured out how to exploit effectively, they're not doing their jobs well.

[John Ashbrook]

It's almost like a divergence, buddy, between the type of people who were duped into a climate or gender studies degree and the type of people who could never afford it or weren't interested in pursuing it in the first place. So you have people who did gender studies in undergrad and are paying off loans to the tune of 200 or $400,000.

[Comfortably Smug]

Insane number.

[John Ashbrook]

And they're like, no, my $400,000 investment in this undergrad bachelor's degree, government should pay for it. It should be worth it. And then you have all these other people who are Democrats who are like, I just didn't think that was the right move. And so therefore I pursued this other path. And they are like, wait a minute, just because you were duped into that bullshit doesn't mean that I should have to live underneath the con that you gave into. I think that, yeah, it's a big part of it. There is a generational breakdown. Like when you look at, you take the boomers out of the conversation, you look at younger Gen X, older millennials, and even some of the Gen Z types, you really have a divergence between people who have these nonsense degrees and people who didn't.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I think it's like that saying, the most dangerous man is one with nothing to lose. And I think we're seeing a generation of Democratic primary voters with that crushing student loan debt for their basket weaving degree and stuff that really have nothing to lose because they're way in debt. And the system that they thought would advance them through higher academia and all of those things has accomplished nothing. And so they have nothing to risk by supporting the socialism.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the bill that is coming due that every president and every leader in the Republican Party summarily ignored for 30 years about what has become of higher education. It's a bill that's coming due and you're producing brain dead fuckwits that are doing this kind of thing. It's crazy. We got one more congressional race that you ought to pay attention to because he's a Favorite of the program. Oh, can we put graphic 4A up, please? Sri.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, tree. Look at him.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, shree. Oh, isn't he something? Old Sri Thandahar. So he's been a favorite of the program in large part because that beat. Beautiful head of hair. I gotta ask you, as a fellow Indian, smug. Take a look at that. Does that look authentic?

[Michael Duncan]

Is that an au natural?

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't know if you need to be an Indian to be able to tell. I think when we talk about Sri, it's important to have the context that he used to run. This is a true story. This is not like a made up, like origin story for supervillain.

[John Ashbrook]

I love this.

[Comfortably Smug]

He used to own a lab.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

That did testing on beagles. And like he abandoned them to die during COVID And I think that may be a beagle on his head. A trophy of him slaughtering beagles. Oh, you're right. You might be right. It's beagle esque. Kind of a rug on his head.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe a shorn beagle.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, it's like. Was it 101 Dalmatians? How she wanted a coat. I think he got himself a rug.

[Michael Duncan]

Cruella de Vil.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, from that. From. From a dead beagle.

[Josh Holmes]

We know you appreciate a good rug, but not for your head. Anyway, we're going to have that clip in a second. But he did go down and he got beat by this guy McKinney. It's a real shame because that guy would show up in the weirdest places and have the weirdest takes of all time. But I did appreciate that mop that he had.

[Michael Duncan]

I appreciated the mop. I also appreciated the fact that no one seemed to like him.

[Comfortably Smug]

No. Even within.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the funny thing. No one liked him even in the Democratic Party because it was clear that he was probably going to go down. It ended up being closer than I think a lot of people were anticipating.

[Josh Holmes]

Power of incumbency.

[Michael Duncan]

But there was some publication in D.C. that sort of was pre writing his political obituary. And we're walking around Capitol Hill, you know, asking Democrats. Sri's got a tough primary fight. What do you think about that? Are you endorsing basically to a person? They were like that guy. I'll pass.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's so good to make friends when you kill beagles. Well, who to guess you're gonna get a little bit. It doesn't seem like a friendly guy with that history.

[Josh Holmes]

Friend of the program and somebody that we've covered, whose work we've covered before. Charlie Laduff absolutely wrecked him in this flashback. Clip five, what are the five Gross Points seties? Well, look, I'm not here to answer a quiz. Just do this real quick.

[Michael Duncan]

That's his district.

[Josh Holmes]

Gross Point Park, Grosse Pointe Woods, Grosse Pointe Farms, and Grosse Pointe Shores. Okay, you know, on your campaign filings, it says occupation. Yours says United States Government. Aren't you employed by the people of the United States? Yeah, I am. Okay, you fix that one. Okay. And finally, you're getting nailed with this one. The beagles. You abandoned the beagles, left them to die in their cages at your pharmaceutical testing.

[Michael Duncan]

See, look, I love animals.

[Josh Holmes]

I love animals.

[John Ashbrook]

I love.

[Josh Holmes]

I just love him so much. Well, he's going to have to live for another day, sri, because it's not going to be in the United States Congress, unfortunately for you, we love election day coverage. We can't get enough of it. Ms. Now has Steve Kornacki, who I do think does some good work. Unfortunate circumstance in clip six. Ionia.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

And Alcona.

[Josh Holmes]

I think we did Alcona, didn't we?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I may have missed that.

[Michael Duncan]

I apologize. Oh, we spilled this water. Just spilled water at the computer. I don't want to get this thing to break. Oh, boy, the monitor went off. Sorry, I just don't want to. We have to tend to this computer so it doesn't catch on fire. Is there.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, there's tissues here. It's all on air.

[John Ashbrook]

No,

[Comfortably Smug]

go back to the end of the clip. Hold on. Shout out to this producer. They're better than our technical staff. Oh, come on. Jumped in and didn't get on camera. Unlike our staff, who try to find ways to jump on camera. It's just like an arm passing paper towels to be helpful. Which, again, unlike our production staff. Imagine being helpful. I think the real hero in that clip is that person jumping. And look, our production staff can't even follow direction. I was like, hey, bring up the end of the video. Shout out to them.

[Michael Duncan]

Hold on. An attack on our production team. It's unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, if I. I give you full permission to put him in some kind of a submission hold, I just want

[Michael Duncan]

to say for the record, one of these days, the two Marines behind the cameras are going to knock your lights out. And I'm not going to do anything.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm not going to do anything.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm just going to say the lighting is great.

[Josh Holmes]

We do have nice lighting. We do have nice lighting. All right, fellas, it's time for a big game. It's Thursday, and it's our signature game, King of The hill.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

It is. I have the defending champion, Steve Schmidt. And I think smug. You're the challenger.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm bringing Sherry Jacobus.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Sherry, my Sherry. Bailiff, I believe, is Holmes. Yeah, right. And Ashbrook is judge.

[John Ashbrook]

Ooh.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's go.

[Josh Holmes]

Interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

Ringside.

[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from her own Twitter account, Agami Jerry Jacobus. And now in the blue corner fight is from his porch in Utah and current and champion of the world, the

[Josh Holmes]

old Batman, Steve Schmidt. Every once in a while he's got an extra gear with it.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, I don't want to be accused of buttering up the judge, but we've been doing this show for almost six years. He has done countless Steve Schmidt. Yeah. Introductions. I think that's his best one. It's unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

It just had an extra panache.

[Michael Duncan]

It really did.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it just, you know, you can go see a hundred straight plays and you never know where you're gonna a one. Plus that's acting. And. And we got it here today.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the thrill of live theater.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Congratulations. It's a little different every time to you, the listener. Listener.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. Geez. Sorry, I gotta pull up my exhibits. I was on the wrong group thread. Okay, exhibit number five, please. Steve Schmidt puts out a video.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh my God.

[Michael Duncan]

Vertical video.

[Josh Holmes]

And look at his face.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just terrifying. And Steve Schmidt writes Lindsey Graham was a warmongering sycophant. Which is interesting if you know anything about the political career of Steve Schmidt.

[Josh Holmes]

Extremely.

[Michael Duncan]

And you know, during the Bush administration, he was one of the biggest cheerleaders of the good news out of Iraq.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Believe that was core function of his job.

[Josh Holmes]

He also probably was never more than three yards removed for Lindsey Graham in at least three years of time while he was running John McCain's election campaign in 2008.

[Michael Duncan]

You'd think you'd have a little more tact given that history. You'd like to think, but alas, you'd

[Josh Holmes]

like to think that's a good one.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, challenger, I'm gonna go with exhibit eight, please, from Sherry. She says Kentucky has two brain dead senators. If Bashir can't deal with McConnell, he can't be trusted with Putin and the rest. This is also interesting because she's deciding to weigh in on Bashir and his presidential campaign.

[Michael Duncan]

Hold on.

[Josh Holmes]

Pop that. As the bailiff, I want to pop that back up. So she's alleging three things. One, she is doing this weird sort of conspiracy theory about McConnell. Two, she's calling Rand Paul brain dead also. But three is also.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Bashir's not fighting hard enough.

[Josh Holmes]

But actually, four things. Bashir is a presidential candidate, and the fourth is that Putin is the thing. Yeah, that's an interesting thing for the judge to take into account.

[John Ashbrook]

And listen, that makes it very difficult to be honest with you. Sort of like granting the premise that Bashir is somehow on his way to the White House to tango with Putin. But if we could just put Steve Schmidt back up here. I just, like, I can't get past the fact that this guy, as John McCain's campaign guy in a Bush Iraq war fax guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Good news out of Iraq.

[John Ashbrook]

Lindsey Graham was a warmongering sycophant just days after the man passed, like, get out of here. Like, round one. Steve Schmidt.

[Michael Duncan]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

We sent him to Baghdad, by the way, in 2005.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, really?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. He went to Baghdad to report the good news out of Iraq. That's literally what his job was at the time. Oh, it's a. It's a wise decision. And I have, like, reams of things that I could add to it that would.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you want to further compound?

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Further compound.

[Michael Duncan]

They tell you not to do it. Do it.

[John Ashbrook]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

We gotta get along.

[Comfortably Smug]

Round two. Could I get exhibit nine, please? We've all talked about the attacks on Schumer. Sherry's going right at it. She says Mitch McConnell's corpse is outmaneuvering Democrats. Come on. Evil but effective Schumer is no match.

[Michael Duncan]

I do appreciate that she thinks that Mitch McConnell is dead, and she still gives him more credit than Chuck Schumer. Like, it takes strange new respect. You know that trope in politics. Strange new respect to a whole new level. And I know I'm flacking my opponent's tweet, but.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but you won a whole round from that in the past.

[Michael Duncan]

I did.

[Josh Holmes]

It's worth.

[Michael Duncan]

It has worked for me.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it's worth doing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's worth trying.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, well, I'm gonna. I'm gonna stick on the Lindsay Graham stuff because this incorporates more fun elements. Exhibit number four, please. Steve Schmidt writes, Lindsay Graham's funeral was as disgraceful as he was.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my God.

[Michael Duncan]

I break down his legacy as a power hungry Aaron boy.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

Who was effectively a foreign agent.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, all right. No explanation necessary. Leave this up, please, Lee. Because the other.

[Comfortably Smug]

How do you only people. Hold on. You gotta describe the photo that he has aspect to this.

[John Ashbrook]

He has a quote in all caps at the top. He had no honor with an Arrow pointing towards Lindsey Graham. Just in case anybody was confused about whether Steve Schmidt in his hoodie is the one he was referring to himself. Schmidt wins in two rounds.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's go.

[John Ashbrook]

There is no, like.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a blood.

[John Ashbrook]

It's insane. It's insane. Pull it up just one more time. His funeral was disgraceful. I mean, dude, it was the most bipartisan thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Washington foreign agent.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, really kicking a man while he's down.

[John Ashbrook]

Get out of here.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

Champion holds in two.

[Josh Holmes]

I, I, I. That's a worthy decision. I can't. That was a plus content this week from Stevo.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, it's. It's sad to win that way, but it is what it is.

[Josh Holmes]

It is what it is. I want to get to one piece of variety, and then we're going to get to your comments. The piece that I want to get to is a Healthline study says study finds. Okay, we like to do those things because it's based on the science.

[Michael Duncan]

We care about science.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we care about the science. And so we look into the science and we dissect it and we provide it to you, the listener. This one is Viagra's active ingredient. May also help stop cancer from spreading. The erectile dysfunction drug Viagra may be effective in slowing the spread of cancer, according to a new study. Researchers said Viagra's active ingredient. Sildenfil. Is that how you pronounce that?

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Sildenopil.

[Josh Holmes]

Sildenopil shows the potential to interfere with cancel cell cancer cells ability to metastasize and travel around the body. So I think we all know what the answer is here.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not the first time a boner has done a good thing for the human race.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, I think you have a point.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, that that's science.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't think I can add to that. I think that's a good. I think just, let's just leave it.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, all I'm saying is the human race wouldn't survive without boners. It's true.

[Josh Holmes]

No, you're right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, and now they're stopping cancer.

[Josh Holmes]

People don't want to hear the truth.

[Michael Duncan]

Although you have to wonder, like, at some point, okay, so now that we have this research and this science, at some point, there's going to be like a, like a, like office sexual harassment

[Josh Holmes]

lawsuit or something where the legal defense with the tent.

[Michael Duncan]

Legal defense?

[Comfortably Smug]

My cancer medication.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm sorry.

[Comfortably Smug]

I had.

[Michael Duncan]

Sorry, I was pitching a tent. I'm just trying to stay healthy, okay? It's gonna happen. I was only following doctor's orders. I'm sorry it grazed you.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh my.

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't even know, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, sorry. Sorry, Mom.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. My apologies to Mrs. Duncan. For crying out loud. It's a family program.

[John Ashbrook]

She deserves an apology.

[Michael Duncan]

You got to give the people what they want.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so we read your comments when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program. We get to all of them and we read you a sampling in the very next episode. And to do that, we always start with a voice. But the question is, in Michigan, is Michigan a canary in the coal mine? For Democrat candidate, quality your answers, starting with the voice.

[John Ashbrook]

First one from Doug Zvosek. Doug writes, Dearborn Stan has been a terms here since the late 90s. The canary died a decade ago. You're just now smelling its rotten corpse.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's sad.

[Michael Duncan]

True.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's very sad. I mean, like, I remember growing up Dearborn was a town that you knew because that's where they made the Ford Mustang.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And like, you know, you every, like teenage kid, you'd like to go looking at the Mustangs and on the engine block it would say, made in Dearborn, Michigan, usa. And now that it's known for like, you see those videos of like these parades of Islamists, like, no, I mean,

[Josh Holmes]

it looks like the Arab Spring. It's. It's wild. Yeah, that's crazy. Comment 2.

[Michael Duncan]

Comment twos from Doc Brandy. Doc Brandy writes, Michigan can't possibly be the canary in the coal mine. Both the DSA and Democrats have allowed only climate friendly sources of energy, so no coal mines can exist there.

[Josh Holmes]

Great humor, great humor. Smugglesworth.

[Comfortably Smug]

Comment 3 is from BDH 1979. TA and they write, pay no attention to the dead canary. He already told me what he wants. Auto pen, that shit. I don't think it matters. Old school or not, the DSA has the entire organization by the balls right now.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the truth.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the truth.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

I think he's absolutely right. Listen, it's been a hell of an episode, fellas.

[John Ashbrook]

We covered a lot of ground with a great kicker quote. Yeah, yeah, apropos, apropos.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, our question of the day is what is your Instagram algorithm? Does it have something to do with your cancer treatments?

[Michael Duncan]

It's possible.

[Josh Holmes]

As we've discussed here on the program, it could. It's just a medical condition. There's nothing anyone can do about it. It's just part of the process of overcoming a deadly disease. Either way, leave us your comments and when you do, we get back to the very next episode. Check out our merch when you like and subscribe. We've got a lot of fun stuff there. There's the America 250 dad hat. That bad boy is a rocker. I have worn it and it is great.

[Michael Duncan]

It's flying off the shelves.

[Josh Holmes]

Your hands were working overtime on such a hat.

[John Ashbrook]

I. I'll tell you, there is no chance that AI will replace Michael Duncan's job as the guy who sews all of this merch. Because there's no. No computer can do it with the precision, with the love, with the caring that Michael does every single time. He takes needle and thread and puts together the greatest merch that anybody.

[Michael Duncan]

He loves. He loves our store almost as much as he loves Olive Garden.

[Josh Holmes]

Not tell you much. Not quite that much. Anyway, with all that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen. Remember, folks, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the lids. We'll see you on Friday.

[Josh Holmes]

Stay ruthless, Sam.